It is only of late years that the town has had any considerable increase, which has been chiefly at the bottom of the hill, but some latterly on the top...In the 18th century the River Etherow was known as the Mersey.

Mottram was active in the early stages of industrialisation, and there were significant cotton spinning mills in Wedneshough Green and the Treacle Street areas of Mottram Moor, and printing and dyeing works on the Etherow at Broadbottom which until recently was part of the parish.

In 1842 local Chartists met on the green, and planned the closure of Stalybridge factories in the Plug Riots.

Broadbottom railway station opened in 1842; it was in the township of Mottram, but at the foot of the hill, a mile south of the village centre.

[5] A Polish pilot, Josef Gawkowski, was killed on 19 July 1942 when his aircraft crashed near Mottram on a training flight from RAF Newton in Nottinghamshire.

In some cases, including Mottram in Longdendale, the civil functions were exercised by each township separately rather than the parish as a whole.

In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so the townships also became separate civil parishes.

The geology is mainly boulder clay above millstone grit,[16] but there are small outcrops of coal at the edge of the Lancashire Coalfield.

[17] The Ordnance Survey labels the village 'Mottram in Longdendale' on its maps, but the Royal Mail uses the shorter form 'Mottram' for the postal locality, which is part of the Hyde post town.

The road is single-carriageway through Mottram, Hollingworth and Tintwistle and through the Peak District National Park, it is used by large numbers of heavy goods vehicles.

Congestion at peak times backs up through Glossop and Hadfield rendering local journeys impossible.

Famous former residents also include Kathy Staff (aka Nora Batty from the sitcom Last of the Summer Wine) and Harold Shipman, the UK's most prolific serial killer.